Investors React To FDA Decision Regarding AstraZeneca's Brillinta

BMI View: The importance of innovative drugmakers maintaining healthy research and development (R&D) pipelines and launching new drugs cannot be stressed enough. The patent cliff - a period starting in 2009, peaking in 2011 and continuing through to 2013, when almost all the leading blockbusters will lose patent protection - will result in a massive decline in sales for some of the world's largest drugmakers. BMI calculates that over the next five years, revenues of US$125bn from the top 10 products will be lost as a result. Drugs such as Pfizer's Lipitor (atorvastatin), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)'s Plavix (clopidogrel), AstraZeneca's Nexium

To read the full article, please choose one of the following options: